A study has shown the age
of weaning in cats has a direct impact on the animal’s later behaviour
and that early weaning increases aggression and stereotypic behaviour1.

The work – generated from a multi-choice online questionnaire
involving the Finnish owners of 5,726 home-living domestic cats made up
of 40 different breeds – was carried out by scientists from the
University of Helsinki.

Based on the study, researchers concluded the Finnish recommended
weaning age of 12 weeks should be extended by at least 2 weeks. The
authors state delaying weaning is an easy and cost-efficient way of
improving the quality of cats’ lives. It is suggested adopting such a
policy could have a global impact on cats and their owners.

The authors stated: “The results show weaning before eight weeks of
age increases the risk for aggression, but not fearful behaviour.
Moreover, cats weaned after 14 weeks of age have a lower probability for
aggression towards strangers than early weaned cats, and a lower
probability for stereotypic behaviour (excessive grooming) than cats
weaned at 12 weeks.

“The effect of weaning age on stereotypic behaviour is partially
explained by the effects on aggression. These findings indicate early
weaning has a detrimental effect on behaviour, and suggest delayed
weaning as a simple and inexpensive approach to significantly improve
the welfare of millions of domestic cats.”

Two more weeks

As reported in Science Daily, author Hannes Lohi, of the
University of Helsinki, said: “We found an easy way to improve cat
welfare: we propose the recommended age of weaning be increased by two
weeks.

“The number of cats in the world is immense and behavioural problems
are very common. This could have a significant positive impact on the
well-being of cats and their owners on a global scale.”

The multiple-choice online questionnaire was designed to collect
extensive information on the health, living conditions and behaviour of
Finnish domestic cats. Owners defined their cat’s activity level,
tendency to seek human contact (later labelled as “contact with
people“), aggressiveness towards family members, strangers, and other
cats – as well as shyness towards strangers and novel stimuli, ranging
from “not at all“ to “very much“ on a five-point Likert-type scale.